


On The Dotted Line (Earth-28)

by Prentice



Series: On Any Other Earth [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Sugar Daddy, Awkwardness, Barry Allen & Iris West Friendship, Barry Isn't the Flash, Decisions Made Under Duress, Falling In Love, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Romance, awkward nerds in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-05-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 06:23:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6842491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prentice/pseuds/Prentice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry doesn't care what Iris has to say about it. Finding a sugar daddy is completely a reasonable response to finding out you're probably going to be evicted and likely going to have to choose between eating or being able to pay for your textbooks for next semester.  It totally is. </p>
<p>No, really. </p>
<p>It is.</p>
<p>He thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Dotted Line (Earth-28)

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, there are no superpowers or super suits.

Barry feels like he’s going to puke the first time he replies to the message. Fingers trembling above the keyboard, he watches the little hourglass turn and turn and turn until finally – _finally_ – the ‘message sent’ sign pops up and he has to go lay down for a while; mortification and humiliation crawling over his skin like spiders as he buries his head under his pillows and tries not to hyperventilate. Because it’s done. It’s over with. He can’t take it back.

And it’s – it’s a good idea, really. It has to be. No matter what Iris has to say about it.

Which is a _lot_ – a _lot_ a lot. She could probably write a book for as many times as she’s told Barry what a stupid idea it is, but Barry doesn’t hold it against her. From the outside, it probably does sound like a stupid idea – a _monumentally_ stupid idea – but Barry isn’t on the outside of this, is he?

He’s on the inside. Way on the inside and this is probably the best idea he could’ve come up with in the amount of time he has – which isn’t a lot – and it’s not like he’s going to be – be _prostituting_ himself for god’s sake. It isn’t like that. It won’t be like that.

It – it _can’t_ be.

The site he’s using, it has some very strict guidelines about that sort of thing. Some very strict _rules_. For all the members of the site, not just for members like – like _him_ – and they all have to adhere to them.

It’s part of the documentation. The legalese spelled out in precisely worded phrases that disclaim as much as they acknowledge and it’s all legally binding.  Or, well, as legally binding as it can be.

Which is _very_ , it turns out, and Barry signs it all after reading it through twice, his face flushing a splotchy crimson when a discreet message delivery service shows up at his on-campus apartment one morning with an oversized packet of papers to sign. In triplicate. With a very bored-looking man in a three-piece suit serving as some sort of in-house notary, his jaggedly scrawled signature like the fucking ‘Dark Mark’ floating on the page and it’s all very…

Barry would say surreal because there’s something to be said for trying to jump start your brain at five forty-five in the morning while wearing ratty boxer shorts and an oversized Crimson Comet t-shirt but – well. Barry might’ve been too busy quietly freaking out afterwards to notice. Or care, really, because he was doing this.

He _is_ doing this. It’s already – it’s started. The whole process thing.

He can’t stop it now, not without jumping through some serious hoops and it’s – he’s – not okay with it, exactly, because he still feels a little bit like he’s going to either throw up or faint or possibly throw up _and_ faint when he thinks about it for too long, but it’s – good.

It’s good.

He had – he’s the one who’d wanted this. He’s the one who’d decided this. Who’d started the whole damn process to begin with and it’s just a little overwhelming right now is all.

He’ll get over it. He knows he will. Right now, it’s just a little too – real – for him. Which is stupid. He knows it’s stupid. He should’ve expected this, this feeling of _realness_ settling clammily on his skin and unsettlingly deep in his stomach, and he’s…

He’ll be okay with it. He has to be. It’s what he signed up for and he’s not going to back out from it. Not that he could if he wanted to, but still. He won’t.

He’ll do this.

He _has_ to.

He’s already sent the message after all and he won’t back out.

He won’t.


End file.
